Many approaches to information handling have been proposed in the past. Regarding approaches to storing data in a way that is useful for some process, examples include U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,337 (Ferriter, et al., Apr. 28, 1992), which relates to a manufacturing effort or hardware design. It discloses a “conceptual design tool method” that involves storing manufacturing information in a database, and generating a parts list. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,094 B1 (Muehleck et al., Apr. 24, 2001), which relates to manufacturing (of vehicles, for example) and discloses a data structure, with multiple layers, for products, components, and manufacturing processes.
Regarding approaches to storing data in a way that allows control over access and use of the data (e.g. access is allowed or not allowed, according to a rule), examples include U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,181 (Shear et al., Aug. 29, 2000), which relates to the transmission (“narrowcasting”) of selected digital information, associated with “rights management information” or rules and controls. The “rights management information” mainly concerns commercial use: e.g. payment, membership cards, creation of an audit record, creation of a derivative work. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,119 (Hall et al., Oct. 24, 2000), which discloses a descriptive data structure, and data packaged with rules in a secure container.
However, the above-mentioned examples address substantially different problems, and thus are significantly different from the present invention.
In light of laws and public concern regarding privacy, there is a need for systems and methods to improve the handling of personally identifiable information.